This disclosure incorporates, by reference, the disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 4,763,544 as well as Disclosure Document No. 156,442 filed Sept. 26, 1986 and titled "DOUBLE ACTION REVERSIBLE GEAR DRIVE".
In order to best understand the present invention, reference is made to FIGS. 10 and 11 of the said U.S. Pat. No. 4,763,544.
These Figures show a clutch means usable in conjunction with the torque converter 300 disclosed in the patent application. As shown in FIG. 10, the torque converter 300 with its input shaft 321 and output shaft 331 has further mounted to plate 305 an annular extension member 381 which extends in bearing relation through the housing 401 of the inventive clutch mechanism 400. As shown in FIG. 10, the clutch 400 has mounted in its housing 401 a helical gear 403 which is keyed to the extension 381 by a key member 405 (best seen in FIG. 11). As such, the torque converter 300 may rotate with respect to the housing 401 but is constrained to rotate with helical gear 403 of the clutch 400.
With reference to FIG. 11, it is seen that a pin member 407 pivotally mounts a carrier cage 409 within the clutch housing 401. It is noted that the pin member 407 is laterally offset with respect to the center of worm gear 429. The pivoting of the carrier cage 409 is controlled by a handle 411 which is connected to one end 413 of the carrier cage 409 by a link 415 and a curved rod 417 having an end 427 extending through a hole formed in the end 413 of the carrier cage 409 a distance controlled by the position of the nuts 419.
At the other end 421 of the carrier cage 409, a hole is provided which enables the end 421 to ride up and down on a shaft 423 which has mounted therearound a compression spring 425. As such, viewing the carrier cage 409, as shown in FIG. 11, the spring 425 is operative to tend to pivot the carrier cage 409 in a counter-clockwise direction which tendency is resisted by the nuts 419 mounted on the rod 417.
As further seen in FIG. 11, a worm gear 429 is mounted in a saddle portion 431 for the carrier cage 409. In the operation of the inventive clutch 400, when the shifting lever 411 is in the position shown by the full lines in FIG. 11, the gears 403 and 429 are in perfect alignment and the helical gear 403 may rotate freely in either direction. When the shifting lever 411 is moved to the opposite position of its excursion as designated by the phantom lines in FIG. 11, the pressure exerted upon the carrier cage 409 by the nuts 419 is removed therefrom to thereby enable the spring 425 to push downwardly on the end 421 of the carrier cage 409 to thereby enable the carrier cage 409 to pivot about the pin 407 so that worm gear 429 is tipped with respect to the helical gear 403. In particular, this pivoting of the carrier cage 409 causes the centers of the shafts upon which the helical gear 403 and the worm gear 429 are mounted to become less than one-half the sum total of the pitch diameter of the worm gears 403 and 429. It has been found that when this particular relationship exists, the worm gear 403 is free to rotate in the same direction in which the drive shaft 321 is rotating but will not rotate in the opposite direction. Conversely, movement of the shifter lever 411 from the phantom position shown therein will cause the nuts to pivot the carrier cage 409 against the force of the spring 425 to a position where alignment of gears 403 and 429 is regained to thereby enable the gear 403 to rotate in either direction. In further explanation, when the helical gears are mounted on transverse shafts as shown in FIG. 11, if the distance between the centers of the shafts is less than one-half the total sum of the pitch diameters of gears 403 and 429, the static pressure between the crown and the root of the matching gears will tend to counteract the radial pressure of the matching gears where their faces meet. The static pressure will tend to lock the gears, while the radial pressure will tend to rotate these gears in relationship to each other.
When the shaft of the gear 429 is mounted in floating saddle 431, which is in turn is mounted on shaft 407 which is parallel to shaft 331, providing the center of shaft 407 and the center of shaft 331 are properly spaced, gear 431 will be free to rotate in either direction so long as the perpendicular relation of shaft 331 and the shaft on which gear 429 is mounted is maintained.
When the floating saddle 431 is moved from the perpendicular plane, gear 429 will still rotate freely in one direction and will lock in the other direction, depending upon which way the floating saddle 431 is tipped. When gear 403 turns into gear 429 from the side which has more than 90.degree. separation, the gears will rotate freely activated by radial pressure, but when the angle is less than 90.degree., the gears will lock activated by static pressure.